Conflict of Interest Policy
This policy applies to every person writing, reviewing, editing, or rating content on bwgamehub.com. Part of the BWG Rating System v1.0 methodology.
What counts as a conflict of interest
- A financial relationship with an operator — employment, equity, a family member employed there
- Affiliate commission on the operator being rated (beyond our standard affiliate relationship, which is disclosed site-wide in the affiliate disclosure)
- Free or discounted product or service received from the operator outside a standard new-customer promotion
- Personal bias, such as an undisclosed grievance or preference
The standard affiliate relationship — commission on referrals that we openly disclose — does not by itself satisfy this policy for an operator-by-operator rating. We address it as follows.
Required disclosures
When rating or reviewing an operator, the named reviewer must declare:
- Any financial relationship other than the standard affiliate relationship
- Any free bets, bonuses, or perks received outside a standard new-customer promotion
- Any communication with the operator’s commercial team that could influence judgment
- Any prior employment at the operator or a subsidiary in the last three years
Declarations appear in a visible block on the review page — not buried in the footer.
Editorial firewall
- The commercial team does not see drafts before publish.
- The commercial team does not influence ratings.
- Rating changes are approved by a second reviewer who is not involved in the commercial relationship.
- Changes are version-controlled in an internal log, with the reason recorded.
If a conflict is identified mid-review
- The affected reviewer recuses.
- The review is reassigned to an unconflicted reviewer.
- Original notes are retained but are not used as the basis for the published rating.
External relationships
- Attending industry conferences and events: disclosed on the reviewer’s author page.
- Receiving press access or review accounts at operator expense: permitted if disclosed; it does not create a bias obligation.
- Appearing in operator marketing: not permitted.
Corrections if a conflict is identified post-publish
- The affected content is marked with a correction note per our Correction Policy.
- The rating is re-reviewed by an unconflicted reviewer.
- The change is logged with timestamp and reason.
- The BWG Rating System version is bumped if required.
Public reporting
Material conflicts are disclosed inline on the affected content. A pattern-level transparency summary is published annually in our editorial policy.
